Happy Yule-blot

'Tis the day of the 28th! Finally! Have your Odin-gifts ready for this wannabee-hipster is going to take you on a cultural ride of your lives!

So, the annual sacrificial days are finally here - and for those of you who wondered where the "traditional" Christmas-post went, I can tell you that I have never celebrated that holiday ever - just like most other Swedes. Christmas is rarely celebrated in Sweden, instead we have the Yule-blot (loosely translated as Christmas-sacrifice) where we 

A) Celebrate the birthday of Santa/Odin (the old Scandinavian songs never differentiated between them both).

B) Sacrifice stuff for things and tradition and so on. Hence our Yule-gifts under the offering-tree.

C) Eat a lot of good food.

Not everyone can afford a nice sacrifical tree such as this.

My grand-father owns a horse-riding company and for that reason we can take one of his big stallions dressed up as moose - viking berserkers sometimes rode on these - and go for a ride in his sleigh through the glistening snowy landscape. Sadly this year there weren't enough snow so we did other things instead (pic from last year, no snow then either, boho!)

A little tongue-in-cheek picture of a cat, you know, like a cat would think that?! That's really funny. Like he would say "Oh, I don't always pose for Yule-blot pictures, but when I do it I fucking cunting nail it, mother-fucker." But cats can't really talk, which is funny in the picture that he pretends he can talk and pose for a Yule-blot picture.

But I digress, and with that funny thing aside, we can keep going with the explanation of the traditions we celebrate: Jelly-fish used to be a staple for the vikings when on their long journeys to trade and share information about our lord and saviour Fish-Jesus (also known as Thor, or Oidipus/Poseidon in Greek mythology). The reason was, obviously besides the great nutritional value of a tiny, transparent jelly fish, was the simple ways of storing them:
     The vikings literally just let the jelly-fish stay in the water, and whenever they got hungry on the open seas they just picked a fresh one out of the water and ate it. Talk about low-hanging fruit, or should I say shallow-floating water-apples! Ha-ha-ha-ha! Oh how we jest today.

So in honour of that tradition, the kids have to fish up jelly-fish from large bowls using only their mouths, a little bit like that Halloween tradition, but instead of apples, we have delicious jelly-fish.

And lastly we sarifice an Asian lady and go to bed.

Chicken and Boats!

Hello one. I have returned from my Angolan trip and I bring great stories with me, and also stories of gaming and hobbying, in case you couldn't see the equal sign between "great stories" and "gaming and hobbying".

Blogger is acting out as usual but I have little fear today, because I shall only post these two pictures:

Finished the test cast of the miniature boat. I will do some more work on an another cast and then do another mould! Because quality matters as they say.

STAY TUNED FOR WICKED SIIIICK UPDATES IN THE NEAR FUTURE DUUUUDEEEE!!!1111?

New Sculpting Projects - 2016/2017!

I have started working on two new projects. One is partially for me, and the other one is just mine!

What on earth is this? We shall see in an upcoming update!

And this thingie? Next to a bear-dude the size of a... of a something big. The guy above might turn out pretty decent.

But alas, I must leave to do paperwork. Also, the neighbours are having some sort of party which obviously annoys me, considering the paperwork depicted above. And on a Friday at that! One must axe oneself: Where are the parents!?

No Nobel Peace Prize for Trump?

As a very Scandinavian man, I am used to things being fair. And as the last US president got the Nobel Peace Prize for the colour of his skin for some reason, I can only assume that this new president, who have openly stated - again and again - that he wants peace, that he wants to work together with Russia, who doesn't want the banker's wars, who just simply want to make America great again - then I can only assume he will be given the Nobel peace prize? Especially considering his colour of skin is orange and that is like super uncommon. Should warrant a Nobel prize, and if not for peace, then probably in literature, they give those to anyone nowadays, though You-can't-stump-the-Trump is not a nobody so maybe not then...

Maybe not. Remember folks, you heard it here last: Bob the Thief Dylan got the Nobel prize in litterature. So perhaps fairness isn't that important. It's more about how we portray ourselves I suppose. 

Gandalf the White, portrayed here as a redneck!

And we all love reading about other nation's politics on a hobby blog, don't we? That's how it is, I at least am obviously extremely happy how my fellow humans in the USA voted and I hope that everything goes well in the future. Also, I hope that we soon develop spacecraft so we can travel to other stars. Maybe Trump can make that happen? MAGA!

But I digress, this is a hobby blog, isn't it?

Version one of the head of the new and updated Moth Queen misses her snout which make her look a bit like a bat in the face. Version two is not shown here.

I have been casting up some cargo oxen to modify and then make better moulds of. It is only 10 months late. The original heads have been rescued and I will try to make a new mould ASAP.

But this is the last update in a few weeks, I am off to Angola once again. 

PS) It sounds a bit sarcastic, but I was and am I true Trumpist. I wholeheartedly supported him with the Swedish vote and that he can thank Swedish media for: At first I disliked him, but when Swedish media showed open contempt for him I started to rethink things. And lo and behold, an honourable man with good intentions was seen upon lifting the veil of the crooked mainstream media. Such is life in Sweden today.

GBU November 2016!

It is mowember and I have just shaved my itchy moustache and I have also not partaken in the Extralife-charity after I read up on some of the details. Such is life, sad...

Life is often sad. But not today mr Frodo!

Besides that, what have I been doing? In case you care, here is a list:

1) Preparing for my Angolan trip. This includes casting some stuff as well as getting some social things done.

2) Failing miserably at casting: I got a bad batch of polyurethane which destroyed a mould of mine. The mould was of two heads of my Great Beast of the Plain as well as it's tail and an extra horn. I got super-depressed but turned that negative energy into plain energy, because only idiots get depressed when they fail. Failing is life and vice versa. So, I literally spent 1 billion hours researching how to not fail miserably again and now I have a headache from hell after reading 1 billion PDF:s about not failing when doing plastic-things. I also read a bunch of things pertaining to the juridical, criminal, demographic fail of Sweden.

3) Gotten a headache from hell.

4) Repainted the Moth Queen. Aaand taken a picture with the flash on. The colour-scheme is changed, and  it is in it's infant-stage as of yet. It can turn out acceptable in the end.

This is a correct representation of what I felt after 

co-signing the papers for ALL the assets of the "club".

5) Somehow gotten economic responsibility of all the assets of a certain "club". This includes property, money, documents and gear worth a bunch of SEK. This is highly unnerving. I am now responsible for not only my own company but also a bunch of other stuff. Weöw...

6) Made another mould. This is one of the moulds I royally fucked up with the cunning use of bad polyurethane. I have, for once in my life, considered complaining to the company where I bought it. Not sure if I have that in me, though (complaining that is). But it stopped me from finally releasing my GBoG to the populace so everthing is shit, currently.

7) Realized I need a female date for a dinner in January, so I will need to get back to a highly unstable but very thin and good-looking nutcase-of-a-girl. She must have gotten older by now. At least I hope she's slightly less volatile. But that's how it goes with hot girls/women, they have absolutely no need to have their shit together, so they are literally walking emotional bombs.

8) Forced myself to do some bloggin. Aaand fucked up this mould as well with the same shit-resin:

9) Have finally made the legs for this one (da thaaang below) but phone lost it's power so no new pictures. I intend making a mould and cast this guy. It looks really nice in fact, and I can't wait to paint it! Wihoooh!

10) And the tenth commandment is the new and reduxed fastitocalon. I have since this picture was camerized added barnacles and added some more character.

I had something funny to add to this picture, but I forgot. It doesn't matter. Expect an awesome update on Wednesday where the Moth Queen is finally painted and have her flying stand firmly attached to her 120 mm too-small-base.

A world of symbols. Archetypes and clichées

Despite the rather egregious or perhaps even pretentious title of this post, we will soon leave the clouds and get back to white metal and plastics, where we usually flounder about. I know at least I do.

As old Platon used to think or say or write: There is a reality behind this world. Well, that was not really what he used to say, but I say it, and I do not really think so in the exact way I said it, but there are definitely a rather thin veil of bullshit surrounding us (this ties in to models later, please keep reading and looking at the images):

Which incidentally leads me to the picture below:

 ... and I don't even have an especially strong opinion on these guys, it just ties in nicely with the image below:

This is Sweden today. And that is the reason why I am sometimes a bit aggressive and angry here on  the blog, the semi-anonymity let's me convey my butt-hurt message from time to time. Deal with it, it's 2016.

But that is besides the point: I have been thinking of our hobby and the models, and how immensly popular 40K seems to be. Can it in part have to do with the re-use of a bunch of pagan and Masonic symbols? You know, the alluring world of symbols and what true reality they try to mirror? Or is it the mixture of grim-dark violence-fantasies that they portray? I know not, if some of the readers here could enlighten me I would very much like it, because I have an idea of a blog-post regarding the things mentioned in the start of this post, but I would like some input by you before doing that. 
     I am not entirely sure this blog has that many 40K-fans, but if you have an opinion on our hobby and what it really is with it that makes you like it, please comment below.

So, this post pewtered out when I realized I was not ready to type it out yet. So back to the current things on the work-bench: I am not dealing with adversity as well as I should. I cut open the mould above without any huge mistakes or issues - there were one notable problem, which will be dealt with - which is obviously positive. Besides that, I have been having some amusing problem with the plastic-injectors (the things that look like big heroin-IV-injectors): Too much pressure made my new company work-area into a plast-fest: Sphluff(!) and there was hardening polyurethane on:

A) My hands and clothes.
B) On the wall.
C) On 100% of the desk, including, but not limited to:
     1) My paint-pots.
     2) My paint-brushes.
     3) The floor and my socks.
     4) This computer.
     5) Your mom (ooooh snap! didn't see that one coming, if you know whatamean).

Whatever. I then made this pre-mould out of lego and plastic card. This is but the beginning. What this means is that the mould for the Great Beast of the Plains (formerly known as GBoG) is nearing completion. Whenever after returning from Angola (yes, I am going back to Angola* once again) I will post a nifty little commercial and maybe you or someone else would like to get one, which can finally be arranged. A not so sweet delay of nearly a pregnancy in amount of months.

Speaking of months and years and seasons: Winter came early this year...

... and made a lot of us Swedes look like this: Having colds and looking un-awesome. Not at all like the kewl guys of tv-series Vikings, which I am likely the last person in the world to finally watch.

While watching Vikings I did some more work on the new Fastitocalon, and this is the wrong picture, I now realize, this is a much older one. Newer pictures will follow. I will most definitely make a mould out of this one, I really, really like how it is turning out. The smaller size makes it more viable for games as well! Looking forward to making a mould of it also, and painting it, nom-nom! My mouth is watering, such is the joys of finally making something I feel good about!

While I am being so positive, let's end with a joke...

*) Angola is the name I use to anonymize my trips, I haven't actually ever been there. Angola is a nice, exotic but still a bit crappy nation that nicely sums up "abroad" for Swedes I think: Could easily be Thailand or Finland or the US and Aaah or even Poland or the Caliphate of Germany (as it nowadays is called, which can be nice for non-Europeans to know). But I digest, good bye.

New Hobbit release, Forgeworld

Not sure how new this release is. But still, I shall stray from my tradition of not speak of the honking elephant in the room that is Games Wokshop: They have released some expensive resin models which looks very nice, like most things from Forgeworld (I also have heard that they have good quliaty control as well).

I will obviously not buy anything of this, despite being a huge fan. In case you care, here are my reasons:

1) Too expensive.
2) Don't want to support.
3) I would like to sculpt crappier versions myself.

Reasons why this was not unexpected:

1) Games Workshop had an employment-ad on their webpage, looking for someone doing LotR-stuff for Forgeworld.

Reasons to buy this:

1) You have more money than I do.
2) The models look very nice.
3) You "support" Lord of Rings-merchandise, which may generate more stuff if it is making money.

That is that. Also, I did an update about a boat just before this update. Check it out and leave a comment.

Linky https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-SE/Iron-Hills-New-Releases

Finished Hunting Boat

The reasoning behind my design of this boat you can see in the previous post, but a quick recap follows here: The boat seems sea-worthy, despite it being a mixture of a traditional, rather small Swedish boat-type (eka) and a larger boat made for swell-like waves (seal hunting-boat, as can be read about in, for example, Wolf Larsen). Taken into account is also the fact that I want it to be usable in Midgard, which is why I added the luxurious inner shell with integrated "ribs" or frames (spant, in Swedish).

It is not entirely finished here, especially the detailing and some more work on the wood. It will turn out pretty darn okay, I think. 
    After that we will have a boat that is suitable for both historical and fantasy dioramas, battles and as details on bigger ships.

Seal hunting boat. Slightly less curved than mine.

Byyyeee!

Logistics: The Boat

A fisher-woman needs a small boat to carry her big tits in 

(no pun intended)

 
Every big ship needs smaller ships to shuttle stuff from deep water to shallow water. Some boats were used for hunting seals, and some for raiding parties. Think Jack London's Wolf-Larsen or Captain Hornblower.

I started by shaping it dick-like, just like the ancient Vikings did.

By the cunning use of bing and duckduckgo and my own experience with Midgard and fantasy I decided on a shape that is more than viable for Middle-Earth.

I then promptly cut myself deep in the thumb and added tape on said finger...

... and then hardened the polymer clay after scoring it in an exaggerated way. This boat is made with mould-making in mind.

Then some more scoring of the "planks" was done, and I am currently adding details and a keel-plank-thingie. Stay sharp you sons of New England and don't cut your thumbs. Or as the internet would say: You're.